History of Rohnert Park "from seed to city"

A History of Rohnert Park
"from seed to city"
By John H. DeClercq
Commissioned by Rohnert Park City Council
Under the Direction of the Editorial Committee
Sponsored by Cultural Arts Corporation
Cover Design: Dave Martinelli
INTRODUCTION
In May, 1976, the City Council requested the Rohnert Park Cultural Arts
Corporation to designate a City Historian to compile a history of our community as
~rt of the City's Bicentennial effort.
Mr. John H. Declercq was appointed City Historian and commissioned to write
this history. He was assisted by an Editorial Committee comp0sed of
representatives of community organizations.
Although this publication is not intended to be a definitive or exhaustive history
of Rohnert Park, it is intended to provide the residents of this community with an
understanding of the City's origin and the events that have helped to shape it. It is
hoped that this understanding will enable them to identify closer with Rohnert
Park and encourage them to actively participate in shaping the City's future . This
history and the systematic gathering and organizing of local history materials will
provide the basis for a more detailed history in the future.
Men.hers of the Rohnert Park Cultural Arts Corporation express appreciation to
the Author , the City Council , the Editorial Committee, and to the many persons who
have provided assistance and information for the compiling of this history .
Rohnert Park Cultural Arts Corporation
A History of Rohnert Park
The people who live in the City of Rohnert Park today are very different
from the first land owners in this part of the Santa Rosa Valley. The
ori~inal residents, a small tribe of Indians,lived in a village called Kotate,
which was located to the north of today's City. They called the nearby
rolling hills Lomas de Kotate, and called the peak Mt. Kotate. Their leader
was Chief.Kotate. Little else is known about the tribe, the chief, or about
the meanmg of the word "Kotate."
These people belonged to the "nation" of the Coast Miwok Indians, and
were related to the Miwoks of central California and the mid-Sierras as far
eas.t as t~e Yosemite V~lley : Their culture and life style was molded by
their environment: rolhng hills, streams, lakes, woods, and plentiful fish,
game, and vegetation - ingredients for a generally easy life. These people
are best known for the fine quality and variety of the multi-purpose baskets
that they weaved.
The Coast Miwoks inhabited about 885 square miles of Marin and
southe~n Sonoma Counties. At the turn of the 19th Century, there were
approximately 3,000 persons in about 40 villages. Each village consisted of
75 to 100 persons. The people of one such Miwok village near Tomales
greeted Sir Francis Drake when he landed in 1579.
The valley land was rich and inviting for farming and grazing. It was
only a matter of time before Spanish and Mexican settlers would try to
settle the area. And when the Russians came to Fort Ross in 1812 the
Spanish realized that they had to act quickly to protect their settle~ents
around the bay. They considered the unoccupied and unclaimed Santa
Rosa Valley to be an unsecured frontier border that needed to be defended.
page I
The founding of the northbay missions, Mission San Rafael in 1817 and
Mission Sonoma in 1823, was a move to claim the farm and grazing lands
and to keep the Russians out of the valley. It also meant the end of the
Coast Miwok Indians. They were captured, brought into the Missions to
live, and were made to work the Mission lands. The Europeans brought
many strange diseases and viruses to the valley. The Miwoks had no
resistance to the new illnesses and many died.
The few Imians that still lived in their native villages began to fight the
advances of the "white men" as best they could. But they were always
defeated by the Spanish and their superior weaponry. One intruder that
was attacked by the Indians was John Reed.
John Thomas Reed was the first Irishman to come to California and was
the first English-speaking white man to venture north of Yerba Buena (San
Francisco). From his arrival in 1826 until his death in 1843, Reed set a
string of record "firsts."
Reed was born in 1805 in Dublin, Ireland. He sailed across the Atlantic in
1820 to Acapulco, Mexico. While he was there, he learned the language and
customs of the Spanish and became a naturalized citizen. In 1826, he
ventmed north. When his ship arrived in the San Francisco Bay, it an­chored
in Richardson Bay, near Sausalito, where crews often went ashore
for drinking water and firewood.
Interested in acquiring the plentiful land, Reed borrowed a small boat
and crossed the bay to the Presidio of Yerba Buena. He applied for a grant
ci land to create a rancho. The commanding officer of the Presidio,
Ignacio Martinez, informed him that the government would not grant him
any land around the edge of the bay, that the government had to retain
possession for security reasons.
page 2
The soldiers at the Presidio suggested that Reed make a claim on land to
the north of Mission San Rafael. Reed took their advice, returned to
Sausalito and went to Mission San Rafael for supplies and an Indian guide.
He boldly set out to stake his claim in the Santa Rosa Valley at the age of
22. Reed built a small home on the east side of the valley, on a rise near
Robert Crane Creek (named for the settler who came in 1852) . But the
Indians were as hostile to this Irish farmer as they were to the Spanish
padres and soldiers. Reed was burned out in 1827 before he was able to
harvest his first crop. That was the last time that John Reed saw Sonoma
County.
Returning to Mission San Rafael, Reed worked there as a foreman, built
a cabin near Sausalito, and started the first ferry service from Marin
County to Yerba Buena. In 1834, he applied again for a rancho at Sausalito
and was finally successful. He received a large land grant in the Tiburon­Mill
Valley area on the condition that he build a saw mill to cut wood for the
Presidio. The grant was appropriately named Rancho Corte Madera del
Presidio. His mill is the namesake of the City of Mill Valley.
Reed died of fever in 1843 at the age of 38, leaving his 26-year-old wife and
four children wealthy land owners-- 7,845 acres with over 20,000 head of
cattle.
Land was so plentiful then that many men acquired large ranchos.
General Vallejo, who came to the area in 1829 to provide a military defense
against the Russians, was unable to pay the soldiers who guarded his
rancho in Petaluma and who were stationed at the garrison in Sonoma. He
had to pay some of his soldiers with land. Juan Castaneda was one such
soldier.
Castaneda was a native of Texas and was a veteran of many battles
between Spanish and Mexican armies. Castaneda built a home in the
page 3
Santa Rosa Valley in 1839, and in 1844 received a payment in land from
Vallejo--The Rancho Cotate. This land grant of 17,238.6 acres was located
north of Vallejo's Petaluma Adobe, south of Santa Rosa, and included
present day Rohnert Park, Cotati, Penngrove, and surrounding areas.
Castaneda decided to settle in San Francisco, however, and sold all of his
land holdings. He sold the Rancho Cotate to Thomas Larkin (the American
Consul at Monterey). Larkin sold the grant to Thomas S. Ruckel. Ruckel
sold the grant to Doctor Page for $16,000.
Thomas Stokes Page, M.D., like the previous owners of the Rancho, was
an absentee landlord. Born in New Jersey in 1815, Page graduated from
the University of Pennsylvania at the age of 21. He traveled briefly
through Great Britain and France and then sailed to Valparaiso, Chile,
which became his home for many years. In 1846, during the Mexican­American
War, he ventured north into California, and served as Sheriff for
Sonoma District. During his stay, he bought the Rancho Cotate from
Ruckel. In 1849 he returned to Chile, where he lived until he became
seriously ill in 1869. He returned to the Rancho with his wife and eight of
their ten children to recuperate. The change helped for a little while, but
he passed away in 1872.
The Rancho saw many changes toward the end of the nineteenth century.
The San Francisco and North Pacific Railroad laid track through the
valley--the first run from Petaluma to Santa Rosa was in October, 1870.
The water-wood stop along the way was first called Page's Station, then
Cotati. The town grew, attracted business, and streets were plotted. The
downtown was laid out like a six-sided hub of a wagon wheel--each side
named after one of the six Page sons: Olof, Henry, Charles, Arthur,
George, and William. The seventh son, Wilfred, the manager of the
Rancho, is the namesake for Wilfred Road to the north of town.
Gradually, the Rancho was broken up and sold off piecemeal. P<rtions
were sold to the Yankee squatters and homesteaders who came into the
page 4
valley after the gold rush was played out in the Sierras; portions were sold
to the sharecropper tenants; and large portions, the majority of the Ran­cho,
were sold as ranches. By the turn of the century, the Cotati Land
Company (the Page sons) owned only 4,000 acres--primarily the low black
meadowland in the sink of the valley, which was crossed by several creeks,
subject to frequent flooding, and used primarily for grazing.
George P. McNear was the next land baron to acquire the remainder of
the Rancho. McNear did not take much of a personal interest in the
Rancho, but rather, bought out the Cota ti Land Company and allowed the
farm to be managed much as it had under the Pages.
It was Fred Keppel, born in Marin Coonty in 1878, and a blacksmith by
trade, who managed the farm for the company. As the foreman of the
largest ranch and biggest employer in the area, Keppel came to be in­fluential
and respected.
This turn-of-the-century era was a colorful and adventuresome time for
the coon try, and Sonoma County shared in many of the nation's in­novations.
The first air mail flight in the nation was from Petaluma (over
present day Rohnert Park) to Santa Rosa in 1911. In 1921, local
businessmen built the North Bay Counties Automobile Speedway to the
southeast of Cotati and drew national celebrities. But the financial venture
flopped after only one year. Also, an electric railroad was ventured; a few
lengths of track were laid in downtown Cotati, but the plan was abandoned.
A highway was built through the valley--the Redwood Highway. In 1915,
the communities of Penngrove and Cotati reached a compromise as to the
location of the road, and the local farmers donated the needed land for the
right of way. The highway would serve as the main arterial through the
valley until 1957. Cotati was also the scene of oil speculation and derricks
were constructed. But oil did not gush.
page 5
The 1920s were boom times. Businesses were expanding. In 1929 the
Rancho was sold to one such successful businessman. Waldo Emerson
Rohnert was a native of Detroit, Michigan (born in 1869) and an honors
graduate from Michigan State Agricultural College (in 1889). He came to
California and became established with the C.C. Morse Company, the
largest seed growing firm in the west. In 1893, Rohnert started his own
seed growing business in Hollister, where he also planted one of the largest
prune orchards in the west. He then expanded into the San Joaquin Valley
near Firebaugh and. in 1929, north to Cotati.
His first order of business was to minimize the periodic flooding of the
fields. His crude drainage system was sufficient--a two-foot mound
down the middle of the field with two-foot ditches on each side.
Then he concentrated on enriching the soils. Waldo Emerson
Rohnert barely saw his seed farm produce. In 1933, at the age of 64, he
passed away, leaving a wife, Edna, and children Fred and Dorothy heir to
the Rancho. It was Fred Rohnert, a graduate of Stanford Law School that
actually took over the Company.
Fred Rmnert farmed the Rancho, some as hay fields, some as seed
farm, from his office in Hollister. The seed farm and the wholesaling of
vegetable seeds turned into a successful venture that lasted many years.
The seed farm was a major horticultural asset to the County, some say
second only to the gardens of Luther Burbank in Santa Rosa.
The close of Wcrld War II brought a housing boom to Smoma Coonty that
gradually took over agricultural areas. Where seeds had been planted,
cities grew. The orchards and fields became subdivisions. Builders and
brokers were busy from Petaluma to Santa Rosa. The law firm of Golis
and Fredericks was one of many that was busy developing land.
Paul Golis, born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, in 1917, was a graduate of
Duke Law School. He came to Santa Rosa in 1948. Maurice Fredericks
page 6
hailed from Petaluma, a "native son of a native son." He joined Golis in
1951 after he graduated from the University of Santa Clara Law School .
Golis and Fredericks became very active representing builders in the
valley. They soon realized that the best way to develop large tracts of land
was to draw up a master plan for an entire area at the outset. And thus
began the City of Rohnert Park. Golis started in the fall of 1954 to lay out a
plan for a new town. The core of the plan was the "Neighborhood Unit"
concept. The plan was a modification of Pennsylvania 's Levittown. It
provided that each neighborhood would consist of 200 - 250 homes centered
around a 10 acre school site and a 5 acre pool-park site. No child would
have to walk more than VJ mile to school ; the school would be the nucleus
of a cohesive community. The commercial and industrial development
would be large enough and diverse enough to support the entire com­munity.
Eight such subdivisions would constitute a city of 30,000 people.
With planned pools, parks, and services the city would be a "country club
for the working class."
Golis contacted C.C. (Tex) Carley, manager of the Rohnert Seed Farm
(whose home still stands at the corner of Snyder Lane and E. Cotati
Ave.--one of the oldest homes in today's city limits) in March, 1955. On
July 4, 1955, Golis and Fredericks headed south to Hollister. On the
following day the two men presented to Mrs. Edna Rohnert their plans
including a scale model of the town to be named after the family. They
finalized negotiations with Fred Rohnert for a purchase-option agreement
for the 2,700 acres, the entire seed farm , at $200 per acre. Golis and
Fredericks then headed home to the business of building. Their next move
was to enter into a joint venture agreement with Valley View Land and
Development Company, which had purchased the adjacent 580 acre Brians
Ranch.
The Rmnerts and the builders then petitioned the Crunty Supervisors to
allow the creation of a special assessment district. <A special assessment
district can tax land and sell bonds to finance the construction of public
improvements, i.e. streets, water, and sewer services.)
page 7
Their petition was approved, an~ th~ Rohne~t Park Community Services
District was created. The new District consisted of two rental houses, a
barn, flooded fields, and pheasants, but "not a single tree." On April 10,
1956 the District held its organizational meeting. In attendance were the
only' four adult residents that lived within the District boundaries. Three of
the four were elected to be the first Directors: Bob Porter, Malenda
Porter, and Floyd Ramsey.
The old seed farm became a flurry of construction then. In July, 1957,
the Divisi'on of Highways completed the Cotati bypass, the Route 101
freeway from Denman Flat, north of Petaluma, through the hills to the
north of Cotati (which cost the town its historic landmark-the home of
"Doc" Page). Rohnert Park District called for bids, sold bonds, and let
contracts. Many construction companies and well drillers were busy. The
first wells were dug, the first phase of a modular sewage treatment plant
was built, water and sewer mains were extended to the ''A'' neighborhood,
and some streets and sidewalks were put in--all completed in seventeen
months!
The Federal Hwsing Administration was the first stumbling block to the
"best laid plans of men" --they refused to provide financing for home
buyers. The builders (Golis, Fredericks, and Valley View) had invested all
of their money in land and didn't have capital or a credit record to·secure a
loan.
The Spivok brothers, Norm, Hal, and Monroe, who were then building
homes in the East Bay, provided financing for the first homes. They
bought into Rohnert Park Homes, changing the name to Alicia Homes.
They built five homes at Alison and Alma. Then Golis secured a loan to
build his own home on Adele A venue. In November, 1957, the day after
Thanksgiving, the Paul Golis family and the "Tuckey" Moran family
moved into the first completed homes in Rohnert Park.
page 8
The Public Safety Building,
dedicated in September, 1963.
One of the City's many ground­breaking
ceremonies. This one is for
the Copeland Creek Project.
Pictured are County Supervisor
Ignacio Vella, Councilman Jimmie
Rogers, County Supervisor Leigh
Shoemaker, Mayor Art Roberts,
page 9
The City's first ambulance, acquired
July, 1968.
engineer Milt Hudis, City Engineer
Bill Wiggins, County Flood Control
Engineer Carl Jackson, City
Building Inspector, Barney
Barnhart, City Manager, Pete
Callinan, developers Victor
Stromer, Allan Forsyth, and Paul
Gollis.
The City replaced the farm.
The Gold Coin (Carriage House>
restaurant under construction,
summer, 1964.
A familiar sign, "Another
Community Improvement Project,"
this one is for a second Public Safety
Building, summer, 1977.
r·~ .
page 10
A & B Market <Sissa's) under
construction, summer, 1962.
Home construction.
.t
:~
Founder's Day Pet Parade, 1967.
·~r
One of many youth programs.
Michael Vosgrau and Joseph
Almeida.
1be first "B" Park recreation
building, summer, 1965.
page 11
One of many floats entered in one of
many parades. Mayor Jimmie and
wife Shirley Rogers, Jim Jr. and
Lisa Roberts.
1be City's first golf course.
Sonoma State College was under
construction th~-0ughout . the 1960's.
1be Jr. High School - it also served
as the City's first Sr. high school.
page 12
The District had some financial problems of its own. In December, 1956,
and several times thereafter, the Directors were unable to pay District
employees. Even as late as July,1959, the District borrowed $2 ,000 from
Alicia Homes, and $200 from Rohnert Park Industrial Development
Company.
Elections for Directors were not necessary--positions were filled as
needed. Ramsey served for only 14 months until June, 1957. The Porters
ran the District until January, 1959. Then Harold Worden, Harriet Krieg,
and William Menzies were appointed by the outgoing Directors. A year
Jater there were four new faces: Jack Buchanan, Norm Fran­cisco,
Dale Faust, and Pete Callinan. The following year, a fifth seat was
created, and Jim Lynch was brought on board. The year before in­corporation
Vern Smith replaced Norm Francisco on the Board.
In 1960, less than three years after the first homes were completed,
leaders in the community decided that it was time to make the District into
an incorporated city. But by a vote of 118 to 85, the people voted against
incorporation.
The issue of incorporation continued to be hotly debated in Rohnert Park
and Cotati. Some felt that Rohnert Park and Cotati should incorporate as a
single city; some wanted just Rohnert Park to incorporate ; some were
against both incorporation proposals. In the spring of 1962 an expert,
William T. Zion, was hired to analyze the situation. Zion's study indicated
that it was "feasible, but not advisable" for the two towns to incorporate as
a single city.
The citizens of R<imert Park then hired Zion to do a second study--the
incorporation of Rohnert Park alone. Zion "proved" that city government
would provide better services for Rohnert Park than the County could
page t:J
provide. These pro-incorporation citizens then petitioned the County,
requesting that a special election be held to decide if Rohnert Park should
incorporate as a separate city.
Tms, in the summer election of 1962, the City of Roonert Park was born.
The vote was 308 to 238. On August 28, it was officially incorporated--1,325
acres, housing an estimated 2,775 persons; the fourth largest City in
Sonoma County; the first town to incorporate since 1905.
The name of the town was chosen by the people to be Rohnert Park
rather than Cotati Park by a vote of 398 to 128. There were twenty can­didates
for city council'.. All five incumbent District Directors ran; four of
the five were elected (Callinan, Buchanan, Vern Smith, and Dale Faust) .
Jim Lynch was the only one not elected. Ken Bell, an opponent to in­corporation,
was elected instead.
Thereafter, electioneering was much more calm. There were fewer
candidates and the issues were not as dramatic. Campaigning during the
City's first decade was little more than spring socials. By· the 1970s,
however, the issues became more serious. There were charges of "conflict
of interest," and "communists on Sonoma State caμipus," and the issues of
pollution, ecology, and growth control became popular. By the end of the
1960s, Paul Golis, the "Father of Rohnert Park," the man who made a
dream happen, had lost control of his brainchild. Lawsuits and coun­tersui
ts between Golis and the City officials confused many citizens and
made some very bitter. In 1972, Golis and Bart Mitchell, another long-time
resident and builder, ran for City Council, but were out-polled by
newcomers.
In the City's first fifteen years, there have been thirteen councilmen (the
first five, plus Joe Pezonella, Cliff Smith, Jim Rogers, Art Roberts,
page 14
Warren Hopkins, Lou Beary, Armando Flores, and Dave Eck). Most
served multiple terms. Most served as mayor at least once. They came
from a variety of occupations: barber, merchant, teacher, exective,
broker, policeman, builder. Most have encouraged rapid residential and
commercial growth for the City. The City Council has always been a team
of workers, not a grandstand for individual stars.
Pete Callinan served the shortest term of any councilman, but has been
one of the most influential men in the City's official business. He served as
Finance Director for the District, and District Director. In the 1962 election
he received the highest number of votes and was therefore chosen by the
Council to serve as the City's first mayor. After that first year he resigned
and accepted the position of City Manager, the position he has held since
that time.
Rohnert Park has grown from a sketchy dream to a sophistoca ted city.
Rohnert Park is not really an outgrowth of the Seed Farm; it replaced the
farm. The growth of the City has erased the farm life that was here. Most
towns grow accidently; Rohnert Park has grown by design. And the
symbols of this growth are many.
The growth and change in the City is reflected in the various locations of
the City offices, from simple to elaborate: from the farm house at 7000
Commerce Blvd., to Golis' home at 185 Adele Ave., to the Public Safety
Building, to the modern City offices at 6750 Commerce Blvd. The City's
u1 timate move to the planned civic center is yet years away.
The building of schools always reflects growth. In 1900, there was only
an 8-grade, one-room school house located on land donated by the Pages.
When the first Rohnert Park children started attending school in Cotati,
page 15
there were less than 250 students and only one school in the Cotati School
District. The Cotati-Rohnert Park School District today is a complete
system. Many schools have been built. John Reed was the first school in
Rohnert Park (dedicated in January, 1962), thereafter, Waldo Rohnert,
Thomas Page (in Cotati), and La Fiesta Elementary Schools, Rohnert
Park Jr. High School, and Rancho Cotate Sr. High School were built.
Rohnert Park also has facilities for higher education--Sonoma State
College. In 1957, the California legislature appropriated $500,000 for the
purchase of a site for a "North Bay Counties Four Year College" in the
Santa Rosa-Petaluma corridor to serve Marin, Sonoma, and Solano
Counties. Many sites were considered. Rohnert Park had the most to
offer, however: the ability to provide water and sewer services, and a
central location. The 99-year agreement to extend these services provides
that Rohnert Park may annex the College site into the City at a11y time, but
no other City may annex the College. Ambrose Nichols presided as the
College's first President when, five years later, the College was opened to
students in the temporary quarters along College View Drive (behind the
shopping center on Southwest Blvd.). In the fall of 1966, the permanent
buildings located on 200 acres of the old Benson Ranch were finally opened
for classes and the College was in full swing.
The City has grown in both population and acreage. The population
growth was strong and steady for a decade, from 2,775 at incorporation to
6,300in1970 when Rohnert Park surpassed Healdsburg as the third largest
City in the County. Then the City rapidly grew; the population more than
doubled to 15,100 by 1977.
The pattern of the City's growth with respect to size is just the reverse:
ambitious in the early years, but slow since 1968. The original District
consisted of the 2,700 acre Rohnert land and the 580 ,acre Brians land.
When the City incorporated, however, only a part of the District was in-page
16
eluded in the City limits, 1,325 acres. The City grew between 1962 and 1968
to 3,812 acres. Several of the annexations were routine. Some of the
proposals to annex additional lands became heated battles with people to
the north and south. The golf course and country club subdivisions were
annexed, so was the high school site, land for Rancho Verde and Rancho
Feliz mobilehome parks, and the "L" neighborhood. But lands to the north
of Wilfred Road and acreage around the College were never annexed. The
most ambitious proposal of the City Council was the tongue-in-cheek
resolution to annex the entire city of Santa Rosa. (This unanimously
passed resolution was not kindly received by the City to the north.)
The growth of the City is a tribute to the many citizens who worked hard
to attract business, industry, financing, and residents. When the City was
very young, it celebrated the coming of each new business. The arrival of
Yoong America Homes, Cal-Wood Door, A.B. Dick, Holt's Marine, and
other businesses was heralded. There were many ambitious projects,
however, that never materialized. The Air Force considered building an
academy here, but decided on a Colorado site instead. When the Baptist
Bible College in El Cerrito began looking for a larger site, Fred Rohnert
and Paul Golis made the College a fine offer of land and services, but were
refused.
The abandoned Cotati Naval Air Base landing strip on the west side of
the freeway has been the subject of several proposals. In 1958, it was one of
many suggested locations for Sonoma State College. In the spring of 1968,
developer Hugh Codding offered to sell the 80 acre site to the County for
development as the South County Airport, but the County Board of
Supervisors would not even consider the proposal. For a while it was used
as a race track; Jane Mansfield reigned as Queen on opening day. Since
then, however, the site has remained the future location of a vast regional
shopping complex.
page 17
The City was unsuccessful in getting a full clover-leaf interchange for
Rohnert Park Expressway-101, but nevertheless heralded the opening of
the on and off ramps in 1968 as the opening of the "era of growth," with full
freeway access to the College. Equally unsuccessful was the City's fight
with the Northwest Pacific Railroad to have them pay for a grade
separation at Southwest Blvd., either an overpass or an underpass. The
Public Utilities Commission studied the problem for eighteen months and
decided that a simple crossing gate was protection enough for the people.
After a decade of success, the City looked back on itself with pride.
Rohnert Park was unique to have two municipal swimming pools. It was
the smallest city in the State to own and operate an 18-hole golf course. It
ambitiously completed a massive drainage project, Copeland and
Hinebaugh Creeks- a five year, three-mile, $1.3 million project, uniquely
planned with landscaping and bike, hiking, and equestrian trails. Another
successful ecological venture is the recycling of treated waste water for
irrigation of local crops. The City is self-sufficient in its water supply and
sewage treatment plant capacity, unlike other communities in the County
with perennial problems. Rohnert Park grew from the "largest
assessment District in the history of the County," to become the "largest
designed landscaped city in California."
The City has always prided itself for the services and amenities that
have been provided for its citizens. The City has a branch library of the
County system, thanks in large part to the City's first historian,
Marguerite Hahn. Parks and pools have been a part of the City since its
inception. Golis and Fredericks donated Alicia pool, completed, when
there were only a dozen homes completed in the "A" neighborhood. Ad­ditional
parks have been completed over the years. Colegio Vista Park,
Dorotea Park, Eagle Park, and Ladybug Park (in the respective "C",
"D", "E", and "L" neighborhoods). The City is also co-owner, together
with the County, of one hundred acres of the Reposa Ranch at Ben Cannon
Creek, east of Sonoma State College, to be developed someday as a
regional park.
page 18
The creation of the Department of Public Safety was a daring and
creative concept of combining police and fire departments. Experts
warned that, "City Hall will burn down while the Bank is being robbed!"
Joe Spinnelli served as the first police chief; Bob Ryan was the
first fire chief of the volunteer fire department. The Department started
small--the first piece of equipment was a hose nozzle that Bob Ryan bought
in the 1963 annual KQED benefit auction. But the dual-function Depart­ment,
aided by a strong volunteer fire fighting force, has ably served the
City.
Citizen participation has been the key to the City's success and has
brought about a quality life style for residents. The 20-30 Club and
Women's .·Association built playgrounds and ballfields. The Recrea­tion
Commission organized swimming programs and summer
cxJtings and spearheaded the successful $150,000 bond issue in 1968 to build
the Community Center in Benicia Park. The Cultural Arts Commission
has sponsored art shows and concerts, and the Good Neighbor Day
celebrating Rohnert Park's ties to its sister city in Mexico, Morelia. The
Garden Club hosts an annual flower show of great interest to the whole
area. The list of groups is long and replete with the names of concerned
citizens: the Scouts, the well baby clinic, the Citizens Advisory Com­mittees,
the Planning Commission, the School Board, the Friends of the
Library, the Chamber of Commerce etc. In October, 1967, the City gave
itself a party and held an awards dinner to acknowledge the contributions
of the most active--82 in all. Today the list of citizens who have contributed
would be many, many times as long.
The "good ole days" are gone, except for the few original residents who
remember it as it "really was." The City sponsored tree plantings for the
shadeless town; carrots and other vegetables came up in the cracks of
sidewalks and streets; children fished for crawdad'i in the corner storm
drains; Saturday night garage parties were the town's main social events;
and the new streets were named after the children of the councilmen, the
children of other early residents, the town dentist, etc. The wild-eyed
page 19
enthusiasm of young men building a town, from scratch, without the help
or hindrance of the past, has subsided. The most outlandish dreams of a
hospital, an airport, a recreational lake have been bandied about. The City
is no longer so receptive to the grandiose dreams of developers, but they
welcome those who dream of a good way of life. Rohnert Park has always
provided that.
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page 21

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A History of Rohnert Park "from seed to city" By John H. DeClercq Commissioned by Rohnert Park City Council Under the Direction of the Editorial Committee Sponsored by Cultural Arts Corporation Cover Design: Dave Martinelli INTRODUCTION In May, 1976, the City Council requested the Rohnert Park Cultural Arts Corporation to designate a City Historian to compile a history of our community as ~rt of the City's Bicentennial effort. Mr. John H. Declercq was appointed City Historian and commissioned to write this history. He was assisted by an Editorial Committee comp0sed of representatives of community organizations. Although this publication is not intended to be a definitive or exhaustive history of Rohnert Park, it is intended to provide the residents of this community with an understanding of the City's origin and the events that have helped to shape it. It is hoped that this understanding will enable them to identify closer with Rohnert Park and encourage them to actively participate in shaping the City's future . This history and the systematic gathering and organizing of local history materials will provide the basis for a more detailed history in the future. Men.hers of the Rohnert Park Cultural Arts Corporation express appreciation to the Author , the City Council , the Editorial Committee, and to the many persons who have provided assistance and information for the compiling of this history . Rohnert Park Cultural Arts Corporation A History of Rohnert Park The people who live in the City of Rohnert Park today are very different from the first land owners in this part of the Santa Rosa Valley. The ori~inal residents, a small tribe of Indians,lived in a village called Kotate, which was located to the north of today's City. They called the nearby rolling hills Lomas de Kotate, and called the peak Mt. Kotate. Their leader was Chief.Kotate. Little else is known about the tribe, the chief, or about the meanmg of the word "Kotate." These people belonged to the "nation" of the Coast Miwok Indians, and were related to the Miwoks of central California and the mid-Sierras as far eas.t as t~e Yosemite V~lley : Their culture and life style was molded by their environment: rolhng hills, streams, lakes, woods, and plentiful fish, game, and vegetation - ingredients for a generally easy life. These people are best known for the fine quality and variety of the multi-purpose baskets that they weaved. The Coast Miwoks inhabited about 885 square miles of Marin and southe~n Sonoma Counties. At the turn of the 19th Century, there were approximately 3,000 persons in about 40 villages. Each village consisted of 75 to 100 persons. The people of one such Miwok village near Tomales greeted Sir Francis Drake when he landed in 1579. The valley land was rich and inviting for farming and grazing. It was only a matter of time before Spanish and Mexican settlers would try to settle the area. And when the Russians came to Fort Ross in 1812 the Spanish realized that they had to act quickly to protect their settle~ents around the bay. They considered the unoccupied and unclaimed Santa Rosa Valley to be an unsecured frontier border that needed to be defended. page I The founding of the northbay missions, Mission San Rafael in 1817 and Mission Sonoma in 1823, was a move to claim the farm and grazing lands and to keep the Russians out of the valley. It also meant the end of the Coast Miwok Indians. They were captured, brought into the Missions to live, and were made to work the Mission lands. The Europeans brought many strange diseases and viruses to the valley. The Miwoks had no resistance to the new illnesses and many died. The few Imians that still lived in their native villages began to fight the advances of the "white men" as best they could. But they were always defeated by the Spanish and their superior weaponry. One intruder that was attacked by the Indians was John Reed. John Thomas Reed was the first Irishman to come to California and was the first English-speaking white man to venture north of Yerba Buena (San Francisco). From his arrival in 1826 until his death in 1843, Reed set a string of record "firsts." Reed was born in 1805 in Dublin, Ireland. He sailed across the Atlantic in 1820 to Acapulco, Mexico. While he was there, he learned the language and customs of the Spanish and became a naturalized citizen. In 1826, he ventmed north. When his ship arrived in the San Francisco Bay, it an­chored in Richardson Bay, near Sausalito, where crews often went ashore for drinking water and firewood. Interested in acquiring the plentiful land, Reed borrowed a small boat and crossed the bay to the Presidio of Yerba Buena. He applied for a grant ci land to create a rancho. The commanding officer of the Presidio, Ignacio Martinez, informed him that the government would not grant him any land around the edge of the bay, that the government had to retain possession for security reasons. page 2 The soldiers at the Presidio suggested that Reed make a claim on land to the north of Mission San Rafael. Reed took their advice, returned to Sausalito and went to Mission San Rafael for supplies and an Indian guide. He boldly set out to stake his claim in the Santa Rosa Valley at the age of 22. Reed built a small home on the east side of the valley, on a rise near Robert Crane Creek (named for the settler who came in 1852) . But the Indians were as hostile to this Irish farmer as they were to the Spanish padres and soldiers. Reed was burned out in 1827 before he was able to harvest his first crop. That was the last time that John Reed saw Sonoma County. Returning to Mission San Rafael, Reed worked there as a foreman, built a cabin near Sausalito, and started the first ferry service from Marin County to Yerba Buena. In 1834, he applied again for a rancho at Sausalito and was finally successful. He received a large land grant in the Tiburon­Mill Valley area on the condition that he build a saw mill to cut wood for the Presidio. The grant was appropriately named Rancho Corte Madera del Presidio. His mill is the namesake of the City of Mill Valley. Reed died of fever in 1843 at the age of 38, leaving his 26-year-old wife and four children wealthy land owners-- 7,845 acres with over 20,000 head of cattle. Land was so plentiful then that many men acquired large ranchos. General Vallejo, who came to the area in 1829 to provide a military defense against the Russians, was unable to pay the soldiers who guarded his rancho in Petaluma and who were stationed at the garrison in Sonoma. He had to pay some of his soldiers with land. Juan Castaneda was one such soldier. Castaneda was a native of Texas and was a veteran of many battles between Spanish and Mexican armies. Castaneda built a home in the page 3 Santa Rosa Valley in 1839, and in 1844 received a payment in land from Vallejo--The Rancho Cotate. This land grant of 17,238.6 acres was located north of Vallejo's Petaluma Adobe, south of Santa Rosa, and included present day Rohnert Park, Cotati, Penngrove, and surrounding areas. Castaneda decided to settle in San Francisco, however, and sold all of his land holdings. He sold the Rancho Cotate to Thomas Larkin (the American Consul at Monterey). Larkin sold the grant to Thomas S. Ruckel. Ruckel sold the grant to Doctor Page for $16,000. Thomas Stokes Page, M.D., like the previous owners of the Rancho, was an absentee landlord. Born in New Jersey in 1815, Page graduated from the University of Pennsylvania at the age of 21. He traveled briefly through Great Britain and France and then sailed to Valparaiso, Chile, which became his home for many years. In 1846, during the Mexican­American War, he ventured north into California, and served as Sheriff for Sonoma District. During his stay, he bought the Rancho Cotate from Ruckel. In 1849 he returned to Chile, where he lived until he became seriously ill in 1869. He returned to the Rancho with his wife and eight of their ten children to recuperate. The change helped for a little while, but he passed away in 1872. The Rancho saw many changes toward the end of the nineteenth century. The San Francisco and North Pacific Railroad laid track through the valley--the first run from Petaluma to Santa Rosa was in October, 1870. The water-wood stop along the way was first called Page's Station, then Cotati. The town grew, attracted business, and streets were plotted. The downtown was laid out like a six-sided hub of a wagon wheel--each side named after one of the six Page sons: Olof, Henry, Charles, Arthur, George, and William. The seventh son, Wilfred, the manager of the Rancho, is the namesake for Wilfred Road to the north of town. Gradually, the Rancho was broken up and sold off piecemeal. P restaurant under construction, summer, 1964. A familiar sign, "Another Community Improvement Project" this one is for a second Public Safety Building, summer, 1977. r·~ . page 10 A & B Market